#DailyDevotion Husbands and Wives A Type For Christ and His Church

Easter week 5 Monday

Read Lev 21:1–24

Lev 21:10-15  “The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes…: I am the LORD.  (13)  And he shall take a wife in her virginity.  (14)  A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people,  (15)  that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.”

The chief or high priest is to be a type or prophesy of Christ.  Note the type of wife he cannot take and the type of wife he can take.  He cannot take a widow, a divorced woman, a defiled woman or a prostitute as a wife.  This is because of the type of Bride the Lord Jesus is taking to himself.  Jesus’ bride is the Church. Rev 19:7-8  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;  (8)  it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”– for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Rev 21:2  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Rev 21:10-21  (11)  having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.  (12)  It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed… (16)  The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia…(17)  He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement.  (18)  The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass.  (19)  The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,  (20)  the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.  (21)  And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

What a beautify bride Church is.  Now the bride of Christ is also a fulfillment of every man’s wife.  St. Paul says, Eph 5:25-28  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,  (26)  that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  (27)  so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.  (28)  In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

So the husband of a wife should look at his wife in this way because that is how Jesus views his bride, the Church and husbands are a type of Christ and Jesus is the fulfillment of the husband.  What a great honor has Christ Jesus visited upon both husbands and wives that they should be a type of Himself and His Church.

Lord Jesus Christ, ever give us such a view of our vocations as husbands and wives that we may not bring shame upon the institution of marriage but may our marriages be examples of you and your Church. Amen.